Tri-City claims ex-CEO got guns as gifts

Anderson says he only used them at the range, denies conflict

Tri-City conflicts alleged

Tri-City Hospital claims in a new lawsuit that former CEO Larry Anderson received guns and other gifts from a Carlsbad medical company that created a conflict of interest, a claim Anderson and the alleged gift-giver say is fabricated.

The public hospital district in Oceanside is suing Medical Acquisition Company or MAC in an effort to get out of a 2010 deal to develop a 60,000-square-foot medical office building on the Tri-City campus. The agency says the gifts were given by Charlie Perez, chairman of MAC.

“MAC, through its agent Perez, provided multiple gifts to Anderson including but not limited to a home security system, guns and other gifts worth more than $250 which further had the potential to divide Anderson’s loyalties and to compromise the undivided representation of the public interest Anderson was charged with protecting,” the July 3 lawsuit states.

Tri-City is seeking a $5 million refund of upfront lease payments it made to the company.

WATCHDOG

Send us your investigative news tips

Tri-City officials chose not to answer questions on Wednesday and Thursday from a reporter seeking some documentation of the claim. No further details are offered in the lawsuit about the gifts.

Perez denied any such gifts, calling the allegations nonsense.

Anderson told U-T Watchdog that he went to the Iron Sights shooting range with Perez twice, and used his guns, but never accepted any as gifts.

“I have some guns, they are all my guns,” Anderson said. “I bought them commercially. They are registered to me.”

Anderson also provided the Watchdog with a Costco receipt showing that he paid for a security system upgrade for his Carlsbad home in 2012. He said he never took anything from Perez except a bowl of chicken-noodle soup one time when he had pneumonia.

“They have rumors, suspicions and innuendo,” Anderson said. “I think they made it up.”

Tri-City’s lawsuit also says board member RoseMarie Reno had a conflict of interest when she voted to approve MAC’s contract after the company paid $200,000 in medical bills for her grandson, who was in a car accident. The company went on to employ the grandson briefly, Tri-City claims.

The hospital says the grandson at age 22 was a dependent, which Reno denies.

Previously

Reno said MAC took on her grandson’s personal injury case, following its usual business model of paying for patient surgeries up front at a discounted rate, then going after insurance companies for full reimbursement.

She said her family received no financial benefit, and she was unaware the company employed her grandson.

“I feel that I have been wrongly accused,” Reno said, adding that she was advised in 2010 by the district’s legal counsel that she didn’t have a conflict.

Perez said his company provided no benefit to Reno’s family that isn’t available to any patient who comes to the company for help.

“We pay for surgery for accident victims all over the country,” he said. “She got no money.”